Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Karra———

<4: 56 pm>

“That happened?” I asked, feigning ignorance. Of course there has been talk about Wiina bringing up a gaggle of criminals to a police station, collared and incapacitated, but nothing more than that.

“<Yeah. No idea how or why. She just popped in, saved us, and dipped with those guys.>” Lrem said, still sounding like she doesn’t quite believe what she’s even saying. Considering the highs and lows during that small window of time? Of course she’s finding it hard to process.

I would like to console her on it, but that might give too much away.

“At least you got off easy. I’m surprised she even realized which sides to root for.” I said, knowing that Wiina had some way of gathering information beforehand, but even those are not very specific. She just said she doesn’t like using or talking about them and left it at that.

“<You can say that again. With hindsight, it makes very little sense…>” She said, clearly suspicious about what’s really going on. Obviously I don’t want her to know that it stems from me being worried about her, once again my intuition is right on the money.

“She has always been an enigma.” I said to emphasize how I don’t know anything about her. It’s incorrect, of course, but this is the story we’re running with.

“<Don’t you have her number? Surely you could ask.>” She asked. Of course I can, and I did, but in terms of the story we’re running with…

“She is pretty busy, I can’t call on her all the time, let alone on something she probably considers quite trivial.” Thanks to that aloof persona of hers, it’s pretty easy to reflect these kinds of questions since she makes herself look like she has the emotion of a wooden plank. “I’d rather not test my luck if I can help it. She’s not unfriendly once you get to know her, but it’s not like I know her that well to be comfortable calling her whenever I want.”

“<Is that so? That’s a shame.>” She quickly dropped the topic.

“I’m still surprised you were picked for something that dangerous. I never took you for that.” I honestly thought she was a damsel in distress, not a hero about to meet a tragic fate. I thought she’d be in a similar situation to Seemi, but turned out that’s not the case.

It’s probably because unlike Seemi who was fighting alone, she has others to rely on to not get overwhelmed.

“<Same here. Just what do they see in a beautiful lady like me? I’m sure they can find a strong meathead fighter somewhere nearby.>” She makes her dissatisfaction clear.

“I thought you were just practicing with mana to improve your health, so I’m confused as to why you even get strong enough to be picked.” That’s the part that doesn’t make sense to me. She doesn’t seem to have any further goals than that. It doesn’t sound like she became this strong and noteworthy on purpose.

“<Beats me. I guess I don’t have a lot to do, so I concentrate on gaining more power. I guess in terms that would be easy to understand is that I’m a ball of stats. Is that right?>” Yeah, I do understand what she is putting down. It’s just that I find that hard to believe. That can’t be the only reason she was dragged into it. In the first place…

“But you must have some skill, right? If you only focus on how much raw mana your body can store, that would lead to problems. I told you about this before.” Of course, I don’t actually know if she listened to everything I said, but considering she’s considered strong and reliable probably means she at least listened enough.

“<If by skills you mean not swinging my sword around like a five year old and knowing entirely self-serving magic, then sure, you can say that.>” She said with a clear sense of self-deprecation. Weird that outside of her looks, she seems rather self-critical about all of her aspects. People are weird.

“A lot of people don’t even practice this stuff, so…” I wanna say that is why they think she’s so good and leave it at that, but that sounds way too condescending. “When they find someone as good as you, they probably think you could do it all, even if that’s not what you were aiming for.”

“<I noticed the pause, you know?>” …No she didn’t.

“Must’ve been the lag.” I said with a straight face.

“<Are you seriously… Ugh.>” She tried to complain, but saw no point in confronting that small detail. She shouldn’t, we have more interesting things to talk about.

“...So what happened after that? After Wiina rescued you. I’d imagine everyone is left flabbergasted and unorganized. Where did everyone run off to?” Wiina quickly left the scene and went to do her own thing after that, so this is something I have to learn from Lrem specifically.

“<No freaking idea. Leader gave me the compensation I asked for, and I quickly went back home. They’re all fine and well, so I doubt anything bad happened to any of them.>” She said with a dismissive tone. She was kinda dragged in, so that makes sense. She doesn’t have much attachment to the people involved.

“So… No cops came after you, or a journalist or reporter?” I asked, since I doubt she can just resume her normal life after all of that. Maybe one or two people are taking interest in her and they haven’t arrived yet.

“<No. I sure hope that’s not the case.>” She said with her expression turning weary.

*Ding*

“<’Sup. What are you two talking about? Also, hi Lrem, it’s been a while.>” Seemi joined the voice chat suddenly. Well that was abrupt.

“<Yeah. I guess it was.>” Lrem said while not sounding particularly enthusiastic.

*Ding*

“<It’s been a while since voice chat is being used.>” Edea said, also suddenly barging in. I wonder if they know anything about the case.

“Are you two just here to say that or what?” I asked, wondering if we’re really turning this into a group conversation.

“<I don’t have anything better to do right now, so might as well chat.>” Seemi answered.

“<Same on my end. I have no obligations right now.>” Edea gave the same answer, sounding slightly less casual.

“...So do you wanna tell them or…” Lrem should be the one to tell them since this is her story, and if I am the one explaining it I could slip up and give away info I shouldn’t have.

“<Ah. Sure.>” She responded dryly. “<So basically. It was four days ago when a criminal gang showed up and caused a ruckus in my neighborhood. I fend them off alongside a fair amount of people and chase them back, but those same people also peer pressure me into going along, and so I did, and things happened, we pursue them, and the building we were fighting in was about to collapse when Wiina suddenly showed up and save us while taking the criminals away.>”

That was… very brief, and left out some details, but probably enough for these two to get the picture.

“<Ah. I see.>” Edea responded, not sounding particularly bothered.

“<What the hell? That makes… What, three of us that have been rescued by her? What the fuck?>” Seemi suddenly remarked. Ideally I don’t want her to bring that up.

“<Three times is a pattern, as they said.>” Wha- Edea, don’t point that out!

“<Somehow I doubt there is a pattern…>” Lrem said in opposition. Well that’s good for me.

“You two were involved in a somewhat big conflict, I’m not, so I doubt there’s a pattern there.” I chimed in with that particular point. “Anyway. We weren’t discussing any conspiracy, just what happened to Lrem.”

“<Yeah yeah… Wait, why were you even involved? Last time I checked you were talking about cosmetics and diet.>” Seemi said, noticing the obvious clash between the circumstance and the individual.

“<Apparently the standard for strong people is so low I look like a superhero in comparison.>” She said with the sarcasm pretty apparent in her voice. “<Well. Somehow I ended up in a better situation than yours. How did that happen?>”

“<Hah!?>” Seemi is quick to take offense. “<I was caught off guard is all! Besides, I was swarmed by the mobs! It is not fair at all!>”

“...I mean. You could also not charge in.” I doubt they’re going after her before she starts attacking them. I know she has a good reason since they are criminals, but if she’s gonna end up getting captured without putting a big dent on them, was it really worth the risk?

“<Come on. That won’t happen again.>” She said, clearly exasperated about being confronted about the mistake that is many months old.

I think I shouldn’t tell her what Wiina told me, both because it would be a self-report, and because it probably won’t help with her self-esteem.

She isn’t one to shy away from physical exercise, so I don’t think she would like the news that her somewhat vain friend who barely trained her body and focuses more on her looks is somehow stronger than she is.

Admittedly it is outdated data, but from Wiina’s calculation Seemi’s current power level is still just comparable to her. Which is still not what one would expect.

“<To be inferior in both looks and strength, how does that feel?>” Lrem mockingly said. You’re seriously rolling with this?

“<Hey! Why don’t you show yourself and fight me then!>” Seemi quickly took the bait.

“<Okay you two, stop.>” Edea interjected. “<So I had read the recent news about Wiina, so do you know anything specific about that?>”

“<It’s just as I said, she came out of nowhere and stopped everything in its tracks. Save our behind and collared those criminals.>” Lrem answered. Unless you know what she’s talking about, you won’t realize how literal she meant. “<It was so sudden and unexpected. I still can’t believe it really happens.>”

“<I can see why you’re so shaken up. It’s like if Jesus Christ or Buddha came out of nowhere to stop a shootout and left without ever elaborating.>” That’s… an analogy. I don’t really see Wiina that way when I have more reasons to than most.

“<Yeesh. Edea, what the hell is that comparison?>” Seemi asked, pointing out the rather absurd analogy.

“<The one where you can most easily comprehend even if it’s exaggerated.>” They answered dryly. “<Say, Kara, you should be the one with the most comprehensive understanding of her strength. You should know what I’m talking about.>”

“Of course I do.” I replied. “Even now I still don’t understand what she can or can’t do. I’d imagine the former number is bigger at least.”

“<Look. I saw her do shit, and it was crazy. It’s not that hard for me to imagine.>” Seemi pointed out. For her, she just saw her pop in and out suddenly. Probably still not sure as to the how and why.

“<I don’t know what you see, but what she did during my incident was plain absurd.>” Lrem chimed in. Indeed, everything freezing like the world itself came to a halt probably spooked her badly. I won’t even be surprised if it gives her existential dread.

I don’t really know which would be considered more impressive. From Wiina’s account of both incidents it doesn’t look like either is much more impressive than the other. Then again she did say she used a more esoteric ability for the first incident…

“<Either way, it is pretty clear that this isn’t an event to be considered lightly.>” Edea said. “<And anyway, glad you’re safe, Lrem.>”

“<Yeah. Felt like a miracle that I came out unscathed.>” She said, emphasizing it with a rather hoarse voice. “<Seemi, would you say how she solve your crisis is hard to explain?>”

“<Very hard. Very unbelievable. It feels like I am missing a lot of context even though I was there.>” She answered.

Wiina would love to hear this, since this persona of hers is holding up well with these online friends of mine at least.